E. 1999 Eternal

E. 1999 Eternal is the second studio album by American hip hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, released July 25, 1995, on Ruthless Records. The album was released four months after the death of rapper Eazy-E, the group's mentor and the executive producer of the album. Both the album and single "Tha Crossroads" are dedicated to him. Following up on the surprise success of their breakthrough single "Thuggish Ruggish Bone", it became a popular album and received positive reviews from music critics, earning praise for the group's melodic rapping style. The album title is a portmanteau of Cleveland's eastside neighborhood centering on East 99th Street and St. Clair Avenue where the group is based and the then-future year 1999.

E. 1999 Eternal
Studio album by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony
Released	July 25, 1995
Recorded	August 1994 – June 1995
Studio	Trax Recording Studios (Los Angeles, California, U.S.)
Genre	Hip hop G-funk R&B Horrorcore
Length	57:18 (clean version) 68:06 (explicit version) 71:52 (re-release)
Label	Ruthless Relativity
Producer	Eazy-E (also exec.) DJ U-Neek (exec.) Tony C Kenny McCloud
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony chronology
Creepin on ah Come Up (1994) E. 1999 Eternal (1995) The Art of War (1997)
Singles from E. 1999 Eternal
"1st of tha Month" Released: June 15, 1995 "East 1999" Released: November 21, 1995 "Tha Crossroads" Released: February 1, 1996

E. 1999 Eternal became the group's best-selling album, with four million copies sold in the United States. It topped the US Billboard 200 for two consecutive weeks. The album was nominated for the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, ultimately losing to Naughty by Nature's Poverty's Paradise at the 1996 Grammy Awards.[1]

In 2015, the group toured in support of the 20th anniversary of the album, performing it in its entirety for the first time.

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[3]
The Guardian	[4]
Los Angeles Times	[5]
NME	8/10[6]
Q	[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]
The Source	3.5/5[10]
The Village Voice	C[11]

Upon release, E. 1999 Eternal was met with critical acclaim. Cheo H. Coker of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the group "has raised the stakes of the gangsta rap game, not only in terms of pure, gritty excess, but also in rhyme-style, cadence and delivery", concluding: "This is the kind of album that starts out good and gets better with repeated listenings—as the dark, subliminal references clear up. Easily one of the most worthwhile rap purchases of the year."[5]

Retrospectively, Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic described E. 1999 Eternal as "an impressive debut full-length that dismisses any notion that the group was merely a one-hit wonder", adding that it "maintains a consistent tone, one that's menacing and somber, produced entirely by DJ U-Neek, a Los Angeles-based producer who frames the songs with dark, smoked-out G-funk beats and synth melodies."[2] The Source hailed E. 1999 Eternal as one of The Top 100 Rap Albums of 1990s.

In a second thought review in Stylus Magazine, the album was described as "Lyrically speaking, Bone Thugs have much in common with countless mainstream rap acts. The themes running throughout E.1999 Eternal are familiar—drugs, violent crime and death make regular appearances. It's the manner in which the lyrics are framed and delivered that makes the group such a bizarre proposition. Bone Thugs had a melodic flow—frequently delivered in unison—that bordered on singing. They could rap together at a lightning fast pace, without losing their sweetness." Stylus also praised producer DJ U-Neek for his production style on the album stating "The album was entirely produced by DJ U-Neek (although he did collaborate on some tracks), endowing cohesiveness to the unique Bone Thugs sound. U-Neek was, like the vocal group members of Bone Thugs, unorthodox in the rap field. It wouldn't be far off to describe him as a songwriter as well as a producer. He was always keen to flesh out interesting sounds—usually based around rumbling piano chords, mellotron and synthesised strings. Yet, the focus was largely on song craft and melody—the album frequently strays into gloomy territory, but never loses its sense of tunefulness. The beats were not particularly striking—usually low-key and sluggish, but the album's strengths are not rhythm-related."

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Da Introduction"	Bone D.J. U-Neek Tony Hester	U-Neek	4:28
2.	"East 1999"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	4:24
3.	"Eternal"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a] Kenny McCloud^[a]	4:06
4.	"Crept & We Came"	Bone U-Neek	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	5:06
5.	"Down '71 (The Getaway)"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek	4:52
6.	"Mr. Bill Collector"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	5:04
7.	"Budsmokers Only"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek	3:34
8.	"Crossroad"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	3:43
9.	"Me Killa (Skit)"	Bone U-Neek	U-Neek McCloud^[a]	0:58
10.	"Land of Tha Heartless"	Bone U-Neek McCloud	U-Neek Bone^[a]	3:08
11.	"No Shorts, No Losses"	Bone U-Neek McCloud	U-Neek Bone^[a]	4:54
12.	"1st of Tha Month"	Bone U-Neek Michael Powell	U-Neek	5:15
13.	"Buddah Lovaz"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	4:43
14.	"Die, Die, Die"	Bone U-Neek	U-Neek	2:51
15.	"Mr. Ouija 2 (Skit)"	Bone U-Neek	U-Neek Bone^[a]	1:19
16.	"Mo' Murda"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	5:47
17.	"Shotz To Tha Double Glock (Tha Dogg Pound Diss) (feat. Poetic Hustla'z & Graveyard Shift)"	Bone U-Neek Poetic Hustla'z Graveyard Shift McCloud	U-Neek McCloud^[a]	4:44

Reissue bonus tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
18.	"Tha Crossroads (DJ U-Neek's Mo Thug Remix)"	Bone U-Neek Tony-C	U-Neek Tony-C^[a]	3:46

Notes

• ^{^a} signifies a co-producer

Samples

#	Title	Samples
1.	"Da Introduction"	"In The Rain" by The Dramatics
3.	"Eternal"	"Character Bios Theme" from Eternal Champions by Joe Delia, Adrian Van Velsen, John Hart and Jeff Marsh
7.	"Budsmokers Only"	"Reasons" by Earth, Wind & Fire
8.	"Crossroad”	"Bad Ending Theme" from Eternal Champions by Joe Delia, Adrian Van Velsen, John Hart and Jeff Marsh
9.	"Me Killa (Skit)"	"I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March
12.	"1st of Tha Month"	"I Just Wanna Be Your Girl" by Chapter 8
13.	"Buddah Lovaz"	"Choosey Lover" by The Isley Brothers
14.	"Die, Die, Die"	"Breakthrough" by Isaac Hayes
16.	"Mo Murda"	"I'd Rather Be With You" by Bootsy's Rubber Band
18.	"Tha Crossroads"	"Make Me Say It Again Girl Part 1 & 2" by The Isley Brothers

Personnel

• Eric "Eazy-E" Wright - Executive Producer, Album Concept
• D.J. U-Neek - Producer, Recording
• Layzie Bone - Producer
• Anne Catalino - Engineer
• Aaron Connor - Engineer and Recording
• Don Cunningham - Design and Art Direction
• Tony Cowan - Recording
• Madeleine Smith - Sample Clearance

Charts

Year	Chart positions
	Billboard 200	Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums
1995	1	1

End of decade charts

Chart (1990–1999)	Position
U.S. Billboard 200[12]	54

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[13]	4x Platinum	4,000,000^^
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

See also

• List of hip hop albums considered to be influential

References

1. Grammy Best Rap Albums Winners. About.com. Retrieved on 2010-08-17.
2. Birchmeier, Jason. "E 1999 Eternal – Bone Thugs-N-Harmony". AllMusic. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
3. Browne, David (August 4, 1995). "E. 1999 Eternal". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
4. Wazir, Burhan (August 25, 1995). "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: E. 1999 Eternal (Ruthless/Relativity)". The Guardian. London.
5. Coker, Cheo H. (July 22, 1995). "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, 'E.1999 Eternal,' Relativity". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
6. "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: E. 1999 Eternal". NME. August 19, 1995. p. 50.
7. "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: E. 1999 Eternal". Q. No. 162. March 2000. pp. 116–17.
8. Fernando, S. H. Jr. (November 2, 1995). "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony: E. 1999 Eternal". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 6, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
9. Relic, Peter (2004). "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 92–93. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
10. "Bone Thugs-n-Harmony: E. 1999 Eternal". The Source. No. 72. September 1995. p. 98.
11. Christgau, Robert (November 28, 1995). "Turkey Shoot". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
12. Geoff Mayfield (December 25, 1999). 1999 The Year in Music Totally '90s: Diary of a Decade - The listing of Top Pop Albums of the '90s & Hot 100 Singles of the '90s. Billboard. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
13. "American album certifications – Bone Thugs 'N Harmony – E. 1999 Eternal". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 

External links

• E 1999 Eternal at Discogs
• "Back to the Lab" series - E 1999 Eternal at RapReviews